Needing a reset, UK football must now face the SEC team that most dislikes the Cats

Coming off one of the most disheartening performances of the Mark Stoops coaching era, Kentucky must now seek a “bounce back” versus the SEC team that most yearns to defeat the Wildcats.

When the No. 24 Wildcats (5-1, 2-1 SEC) kick off against once-beaten Missouri (5-1, 1-1 SEC) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Kroger Field, UK figures to be facing a highly motivated foe.

The Cats have beaten the Tigers in seven of their past eight meetings. Five of those seven Missouri losses have been decided by one score. Three of the defeats have come after controversial, late-game officiating actions broke in favor of UK.

After enduing a series of agonizing defeats to Kentucky, Mizzou has built up a high level of antagonism for the Wildcats.

“We don’t like Kentucky,” now-former Mizzou safety Martez Manuel said two summers ago at SEC Media Days. “I hate that white and blue, I’m not going to lie.”

This past summer at SEC Media Days, current Missouri defensive back Kris Abrams-Draine said, “There’s something we don’t like about (Kentucky) and they don’t like about us.”

It has long been an article of faith among some UK football backers that the Wildcats do not get a favorable whistle from SEC officiating.

You will have a near-impossible task convincing Missouri of that.

▪ In 2017, with Kentucky clinging to a 40-34 lead over Mizzou, Tigers quarterback Drew Lock hit wideout J’Mon Moore near the UK 30-yard line inside the game’s final 30 seconds.

After the completion but before Moore could return the ball to the officials, Kentucky’s Josh Allen knocked it away. The ball squirted to a stop near the UK 20. By the time the officials finally got the ball set so Lock could spike it to stop the clock, there were only three seconds left.

Lock’s final pass to Albert Okwuegbunam fell incomplete.

In a subsequent statement, the Southeastern Conference office said the game officials had not seen UK’s Allen knock the ball away from Moore and that the clock should have been stopped with 16 seconds left.

▪ The following season in Columbia, it was Kentucky trying to mount a last-gasp rally. UK was behind 14-9 when it took over the ball with 1:24 left in the game at its own 19-yard line.

Quarterback Terry Wilson drove the Cats to the Missouri 9-yard line with four seconds left. On what was presumed to be the game’s final play, Wilson threw to 6-foot-5, 238-pound wideout Ahmad Wagner on a fade pattern in the left corner of the end zone.

As time expired, Wagner caught Wilson’s pass but did so clearly out of bounds. However, Missouri cornerback DeMarkus Acy was called for pass interference against Wagner.

That allowed Kentucky to run an untimed final down from the Mizzou 2-yard line. Wilson utilized it to throw to C.J. Conrad for a touchdown and a 15-14 UK victory.

▪ Just last season, Kentucky was clinging to a four-point lead at Missouri when it lined up to punt from its own 41-yard line with 2:34 left in the game.

Long snapper Clay Perry sailed the ball high over the head of UK punter Colin Goodfellow. However, Goodfellow raced back back to the Kentucky 4-yard line and retrieved the ball. Turning forward to kick, Goodfellow got his punt off a milli-second before Missouri linebacker Will Norris planted him.

The game officials ruled that Goodfellow had not left the tackle box and, once he began the punting motion, was protected from physical contact. A resulting roughing the kicker penalty on Mizzou gave Kentucky a first down and allowed the Wildcats to run all but the final 38 seconds of the game off the clock in what became a 21-17 UK victory.

Subsequently, the play has led to a rule change. In 2023, there is no penalty for hitting a punter if the kicker is displaced more than 5 yards from the position of the snap.

All that past is prologue to why Eli Drinkwitz’s Tigers figure to be breathing fire when they face Kentucky on Saturday night.

After UK laid a dinosaur egg in its 51-13 loss at Georgia on Saturday, it will be interesting to see what the Wildcats’ frame of mind is.

Kentucky desperately needs to get its passing game untracked. In three prior Southeastern Conference games, UK quarterback Devin Leary has completed only 45.9% of his throws (34 of 74).

Meanwhile, the Kentucky pass defense was shredded for 435 yards by Georgia’s fast-paced attack. That is worrisome since Missouri, led by veteran QB Brady Cook and emerging-star wide receiver Luther Burden, is 12th in the FBS in passing yards a game (319.5).

Coming off such a dispiriting performance, Kentucky very much needs its black magic against Missouri to hold.

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